• US $ is no longer a stable currency.• Cine - stars are best applicants for politics.• Managers do not add value to the society.The parliamentary form of democracy has failed in India.• 33% women reservation in parliament.• Consumer satisfaction should be achieved at any cost.• B-School education is only affordable to rich people.• Democracy is the only way to a sustained economic growth.• Should youth indulge in politics?• Effect of internet in India.• Liberalisation in 1991 was a forced one.• Democracy is a luxury in India.• Is globaliasation the fear for Indian culture?• India Shining• Economic reforms make richer people rich and poorer people poor.

IIM Calcutta

• Information Technology• Industrial growth in the next millennium will depend a lot on how we tackle the environmental issues.• Food comes first, ethics later.• In India, democracy is nothing but politicised monarchy.• New Delhi should not be the capital of India.• Industrial growth and environmental care do not go hand in hand.• TV commercials should be banned.• To survive in the civilized world one needs to be hypocrite.• Money is the sixth sense without which one cannot enjoy the other five.• Advanced mathematics has no value in life.• Efficiency and corruption go hand in hand.• Welcome back socialism.• Information Technology

IIM Bangalore• The government should stop funding the IITs and the IIMs and, instead, divert the funds to primary education.• Profit is the only business of business.• India should be reorganised into smaller states.• Growth and integrity are poles apart.• Managerial skills learnt from classroom can never match those learnt from experience.• Government should reduce defence expenditure and spend more on social sector.• The UN has not served any purpose in the last decade.• Religion is a private matter and should be no concern of the state.• The government should stop funding the IITs and the IIMs and, instead, divert the funds to primary education.• Profit is the only business of business.• India should be reorganised into smaller states.

NMIMS

• Nature of paying for the environment development.• Indian customs - discuss.• Wisdom comes with age.• Indian politicians are not bothered about the. Should the defense budget be reduced?• Mobile phones are a social waste.• Will machine replace man one day?• Gandhism is not relevant these days.• Bordering world - reality or dream.• Secularism is declining - justify.• future of our country• Agroeconomics• Indian Village: a boon or a curse?• Will the defense budget be reduced?• Will machine replace man in future?• Marketing of tobacco and tobacco products is unethical.• Ethics in India are declining.• Marketing forces the consumer to buy those products which they don't want to.

• Advertising and ethics.• IT - What does the future hold? Give recommendations.• Conscription should be made compulsory.• Why is patriotism lacking in India?• What ails India more - corruption or overpopulation.• What should India do to preserve its IT command over the World.]• IT boom in India.• Large dams are a must for India's development.• Leaders should be followers first.• Should the Government ban India from playing cricket matches in Sharjah? Justify.• Why do more girls choose Human Relations Management?

IIM Kozhikode

• Women empowerment is the basis for social development.• Science, and not rhetoric, underpins the National Policy.• Human rights impedes economic programme.• Subsidies for higher studies should be done away with.

MDI• Modern cinema is a boon to the Indian society.• Medical research on animals is immoral and should be banned.

IIM Lucknow• Can religion be kept out of politics?• Religious fundamentalism is more dangerous than regionalism.• International embargo: the US is going too far.• India - Pakistan relation: has it reached a point of no return?• Coke and Pepsi should be driven out of India.• Television in India is turning people to watchers rather than doers.• Is India ready for e-commerce?• Has the time come to eradicate nuclear weapons?• Knowledge is the awareness of one's ignorance.• Virtue has its own reward.• Should we legalise drugs and alcohol consumption in India.• Is the job of a manager to do the right things or to do things rightly?• 'Tryst with destiny' has India redeemed its pledge?• All education should be exclusively provided by the government.

Some Topics which Have Appeared In IIMs past few years:

• No one studies for an MBA. Everyone studies for a job.• Do we need graduate engineers at all?• Change what you can. Accept what you cannot.• Political crisis and the Indian economy.• Corruption is an economic lubricant, and hence may not be all that bad.• The Indian economy is in shambles.• Talk of social responsibility in the private sector is sheer hypocrisy.• Is greed an essential human quality?• Nature can fulfill man's need but can not his greed.• Pollution control is a luxury for India.• Engineers joining management is a national waste.• The pen is mightier than the sword, but fanaticism is the mightiest of all.• Parliamentary democracy is an obstacle in the path of growth of the Indian nation.• Indo-Pak differences are so deep-rooted that Kashmir is only being used as an excuse.• Violence is a prerequisite for progress.• Is war with Pakistan inevitable?• Women make better managers than men.• GDs as a means of selection by the IIMs are a farce.• Opposition to privatization will affect India's financial future• Do computers dehumanize society?• Success comes not so much by solving problems as by exploiting opportunities.• All higher education in India should be privatized.• With India being a world leader people are still dieing of starvation, comment.• What will the present budget be like?• Management education should make job seekers into job creators.• To prevent India from disintegrating, more autonomy should be given to the states.• Has the Indian political structure outlived its utility?• Underdevelopment - fate, mismanagement or oppression?• Management education is a luxury for a poor country like India.• Ends justify the means.• Our country needs more technocrats and less managers.• Will computerization make a robot of all human beings?

Unpredictability is the very nature of MBA exams like XAT & CAT. Amidst this unpredictability candidates are expected to demonstrate excellent time managements skills. In exams like XAT & CAT along with logical and analytical skills candidates are silently evaluated on their ability to cope up with pressure. Below are some of the simple tips which would be useful while writing the CAT and other MBA Exams:1. How to do Smart Selection of Questions? Read a question for few seconds, if it appears very familiar to you then only go ahead and attempt it. Remember marks allotted to each question are same. So there is no point in attempting a complex question by spending 7-8 mins whereas in the same time you could have had attempted 3 simple questions.
Tips for smartly selecting the questions:
1. Try to skip questions which are more than 6 lines long.
Reasons: Merely Reading such question will take a lot of time
2. Try to skip question from topics in which you are not too confident.
3. Avoid questions which you already know will consume a lot of time.

4. Avoid questions in which options go to two or three decimal points
E.g. A question where options are:
a.) 4,324.234
b.) 4,324.233
c.) 4,324.243
d. 4,324.235
Here you will waste a lot of time in finding the correct decimal point.

2. What Order of Sections should you attempt?a. You should always start with a section you are most comfortable with,Reasons:The initial few minutes of test matters a lot and you should always
try out with something which you are comfortable with which in turn will
boost your confidence level for rest of the test.

b. Don't leave a section in which you are least confident for the end.
Reasons: Last few minutes of the test are generally nerve testing ones. So it won’t be good idea to attempt something you are not that that confident with in the last few minutes.E.g.:If Ram is very much confident in DI, Good in Quantz but Ok in English
His order of attempts should be:
DI
English
QuantzPractice through mock test's to find out what order works best for you.

Note: With the current online format of CAT this is no longer directly applicable. While attempting Section 1 or Section 2 of CAT candidates are advised to quickly move to the sub sections which they are mostly comfortable with and ensure that they attempt as many question as possible in their strong area. Though this still holds good for other exams like XAT, SNAP etc.

3. Do’s & Don’ts in last 5 minutes....Never start attempting a comprehension or Logical Reasoning question(with lots of inputs) in Last 5 minutes. In last 5 mins, try to attempt questions which are short in description.

4. Always Keep sectional Cut Off in mind.Currently exams like XAT & CAT are divided into sections like:
a) Quantitative Ability & b) Data Interpretationc) Verbal Ability & d) Logical Reasoning.The concept of cutoff is never fixed. Also XLRIs, IIMs have not disclosed whether they have a sub sectional cut-off or not.Knowing the facts its advisable to have while attempting a section avoid getting over enthusiastic and spend too much of time in one sub section alone. Along with the time limit also set a limit on number of question you would be attempting in a sub section.Reasons: Many a time’s merely having a time limit doesn't helps. This is due to the fact that you never know how complex the other sections are.
You may clear the cutoff of a particular sub section in 35 mins but for other section may require 40 minutes depending on its complexity. Also if you have not planned your time well you may end up spending more time in a sub section which you are not that strong at.

E.g.: Looking at his speed and to ensure he clears sectional cutoff RAM decides to attempt 25 questions in Section 1 (15 questions in DI & 10 in quantitative) and 25 in Section 2 (10 in English & 15 in LR.)
He also sets a time limit for each sub section: In Section 1: for DI 30 & 40 mins for Quantitative. In Section 2: 25 minutes for English & 45 for Logical Reasoning. He was able to solve 25 questions of DI in 50 mins only.
Now instead of spending more time in DI Ram should stop here and move ahead to the next section. This will help Ram as he is not sure about the difficulty levels of other sections (and which may require more time to clear the cut-off).

Utilize mock tests to apply the above tips and find out where you need to work more.